Carminic acid is a colorant, which can be extracted from the female insect bodies of Dactylopius coccus costa (alternative name Coccus cacti L.). The insects live on Nopalea coccinellifera, Opuntia fidus indica and other plants of the family Cactaceae cultivated for instance in the desert areas of Mexico and Central and South America. Depending on the pH the colorant may be a color in a spectrum from orange over red to purple and is generally known as cochineal or cochineal color. Carmine colorant is widely used in foods and beverages.
Carminic acid is harvested by extraction from said insects' dried bodies with water or alcohol. During the aqueous based extraction of carminic acid from the insect, an amount of insect protein is also released from the insect and will be contained in the color extract. The level of insect protein is typically less than 0.5%. The aqueous based extract of cochineal is primarily containing carminic acid plus some cochineal protein and other minor extractable substances from the insect. Hereinafter this extract is referred to as cochineal extract solution.
It has been reported that the cochineal insect proteins could create some allergy related problems. In order to solve this allergy problem, US2002/0058016; EP1318178 (SAN-EI GEN (Japan)) describes a process wherein the cochineal extract solution is subjected to enzymatic proteolysis and Dactylopius coccus costa insect proteins with a molecular weight greater than 6,000 is subsequently removed.
The art describes numerous other not proteolysis based standard methods to make a pure carminic acid product substantially free of Dactylopius coccus costa insect proteins. Such methods generally use suitable adsorption treatments, ion exchange treatments, acid treatments and/or membrane treatments. Commercially available carminic acid products substantially free of Dactylopius coccus costa insect proteins include a water-soluble Cochineal powder from Chr. Hansen, A/S (Denmark) or similar commercially available products from e.g. the companies Pronex (Peru) or Sensient.
A carminic acid lake denotes herein a type of coloring composition consisting essentially of carminic acid combined more or less definitely with aluminum and calcium. This is termed carminic acid calcium-aluminum lake. The lake is prepared by reacting carminic acid with aluminum and/or calcium under aqueous conditions. The conditions are adjusted in a way that favors precipitation of the aluminum/calcium-carminic acid lake complex composition. This complex composition is termed carmine.
The working example 2, US2002/0058016 (SAN-EI GEN (Japan) describes preparation of a carminic acid calcium-aluminum lake based on a pure carminic acid solution made in example 1. Example 2 section [0085] then explains that “when a carminic acid aluminum lake or calcium lake (Carmine) is caused to form a polymer, there is the tendency that when a low molecular protein is allowed to be present, a more neat lake can be obtained with an increased intensity of red color. Therefore, a cochineal color (carmine) with a higher intensity of redness and an increase market value may be prepared by adding a protein of comparatively low molecular weight, which does not become an allergen to the above allergen-free solution.” Besides this speculative statement, no further relevant details with respect to a possible addition of low molecular weight protein to the carminic acid lake are described.